A Kiss Under the Mistletoe
by HeroxPartnerfan96
Summary: Christmas has arrived in Petalburg City, and Ash and May are helping the others set up the decorations. But when the two get caught under a mistletoe, what will happen next? Advanceshipping Christmas one-shot


**A Kiss Under the Mistletoe**

The Christmas season had arrived in Petalburg City and Ash, May, Max and Brock were staying at the Petalburg Gym. It had been a few days since Ash had won the Balance Badge from Norman and the group were having a rest before they continued on their way to Fortree City. Currently, the group were helping Norman and Caroline set up the decorations around the Gym: Ash and May were setting up the tree and decorating it together, Max was helping put up the decorations around the building and Brock was in the kitchen helping Norman and Caroline with the Christmas dinner for that night. With Ash and May, they were nearly finished decorating the tree as May was putting up the ball-balls while Ash had just finished hanging the streamers around the tree. "I don't know about you, but I just love whenever Christmas time rolls around!" May happily commented looking over at Ash.

Ash turned his glance to her and nodded in agreement. "Who doesn't? Everyone loves it when Christmas comes. You get to spend time with friends and family, there's always lots of great food and let's not forget about the presents!" he replied. Pikachu showed a big smile hearing Ash mention all of that and he nodded in agreement; sufficed to say, Christmas was always an exciting time of the year for everyone.

"And who could forget about the Christmas shopping?" May then added with a big smile on his face. Ash then turned to May with his previous bright smile having been replaced with an expression of dismay; if there was only one aspect of Christmas that he didn't enjoy, it was the shopping. It wasn't that he hated it, but the lines during the Christmas rush hour tended to be large and since the shops would often hold sales during that time of the year, that meant that everyone would be flocking around trying to buy gifts for their friends and family and that would tend to leave others falling behind. May noticed that Ash didn't look so thrilled about the shopping part of Christmas and she showed an expression of fake shock. "Don't tell me you don't enjoy Christmas shopping?" she asked, like she was pretending to be upset about that. However, Ash didn't know that May was pretending and thought that she was being serious about how hurt she was to learn this from him.

"No, of course not! I'm not trying to say that I don't like it. I just think it's a bit demanding to shop when Christmas comes around. I mean, after all, the crowds tend to stack up by the minute and there's never enough room for anyone to look for what they need. Plus, the sales all around don't help much with easing the crowds." Ash quickly explained showing a nervous smile as he was trying to prevent May from getting upset at him. Fortunately, his attempt at explaining himself seemed to work because May's hurt expression was almost immediately replaced with a big smile and she nodded in understanding.

"Oh, that's okay then. I know what you mean; it's always tough to find what you're looking for when nearly everyone this side of the city is trying to find it too." May commented. Noticing that she wasn't upset with him anymore, Ash quietly sighed in relief. The two then looked over at the tree to see how their efforts turned out: the tree was nearly completely decorated from top to bottom with different coloured ball-balls hanging on the end of the tree branches, streamers and lights hung across the tree and personal decorations such as turtle doves, Beautiflies and stars hung up as well. "Well, it looks like the tree's almost done. The only thing we need is the star at the top." May said. She then held up a large golden star with a spring on the end to hang up on the very top of the tree.

"Care to do the honours, Pikachu?" Ash asked looking over at his partner Pokemon. "(Certainly.)" Pikachu replied nodding in agreement. With this, he ran over across Ash's shoulder to May and grabbed the star from her. He then jumped up onto the tree and slowly started to climb it, making sure he didn't accidently knock off any of the decorations that were in his way, until he made it to the top and carefully placed the star on the top of the tree. "(We're all set!)" Pikachu called looking down at the Trainers with a thumbs-up to show that his effort was successful before he jumped off the tree and landed back safely on Ash's shoulder.

"All right, we're all set! Thanks, Pikachu." Ash said with a bright smile as he looked over at Pikachu who had just climbed back onto his shoulder. "(No problem, Ash.)" Pikachu happily replied. Ash and May then both looked back at the tree to see that it was now fully decorated and needless to say, it looked better than May thought it would once they were done.

"Wow, the tree looks amazing. Thank you so much for your help, Ash. I don't think I would have been able to do it on my own." May said as she then turned to Ash with a big smile, which prompted Ash to turn his glance to her with his own smile on his face. "Oh, you're welcome, May. It's always better doing things when you have someone to help you out with it." Ash replied showing May a thumbs up while he was talking. May happily nodded in agreement with her smile growing brighter and she could feel her cheeks starting to glow bright red. Hearing the sound of footsteps in the other room, Ash and May both turned their heads to see that it was Max coming down the staircase; he had just finished putting up the decorations in the hallway where his, May and the guestrooms were.

"Finally, upstairs is all finished! How's the tree coming along?" Max asked as he arrived at the bottom of the staircase and ran over into the main room to see how Ash and May were going with the tree.

"Well, you're just in time, Max. Come see for yourself." May replied pointing to the tree for Max to see for himself. Max had a look up at the tree and showed a smile as he adjusted his glasses, genuinely impressed by Ash and May's efforts; it seemed to him that they had done a lot of work to make the tree look as great as it should be.

"I've got to say, you two really pulled out all the stops for this one. It's certainly a step up from May's attempt to decorate the tree last year." Max commented. He then looked up at May with an expression of smugness with a smug smile to match as he still remembered that incident while May let out a small groan of dismay and glared down at Max after hearing him say that; it was obvious to her that he was never going to let her the end of her previous attempt at tree decoration. Ash simply looked over at the siblings with an expression of confusion, as he had no idea what they were talking about.

"Why? What happened last year?" Ash asked. May nearly jumped upon hearing that question and then she quickly showed a nervous smile and started waving her hands in front of her as a sweat drop of embarrassment appeared on the side of her head. "That's a question that doesn't need to be answered!" May immediately blurted; of all the things, she didn't want Ash to learn about..._that_. She would then end up as a laughing stock for the rest of the time she was with him. Max's smug smile grew wider listening to May's reaction; he had a feeling this would go better than he thought it would.

"What's the matter, May? Don't you want to tell Ash about how you thought it would be a great idea to..." Before Max could go on any further, May quickly covered his mouth with her hand while her smile grew even more nervous. "Thank you, Max! I'm sure we'd all love to hear that story, but now is not really a good time for it." May rapidly said, laughing nervously all the while. Once she knew that she had gotten Max to stop opening his mouth when he didn't need to, she then let go of him and looked back up at Ash. "Don't worry about Max. He loves to run his mouth off when it's not necessary." May explained as her nerves started to ease after dealing with Max. Ash stared in silence wondering what that was about for a few seconds before he started to smile and nodded in understanding.

"Why don't we see how the rest of the Gym looks?" Ash suggested. Seeing that as a suitable change of subject, May nodded in understanding with her smile no longer showing any signs of nervousness. So with this, the two headed off into the hallway with Max following right behind them. They then stopped at the doorway and looked at the staircase to see that there were strings with several golden stars hung on the staircase railing as well as a wreath hung up on each of the bedroom doors. "Max really did a great job with all of the decorations around this place, huh?" Ash asked as he and May looked all around them to see the area. May nodded in agreement and then she looked up, and her eyes nearly wide when she noticed something hanging up on the top of the doorway.

"Hey, Ash. Look." May said tapping Ash on the shoulder to get his attention. Ash turned his glance at May and then looked up at the doorway to see what she spotted and noticed that there was a small plant hanging on the doorway above their heads. "Isn't that mistletoe?" May asked as the two looked up at the plant.

"Yeah, it sure looks like it." Ash agreed slowly nodding. The two stared up at the doorway for a few seconds before they slowly lowered their gazes to look each other right in the eyes. Silence passed between the two as they continued to stare at each other before May slowly showed a bright smile and her cheeks started to turn bright red. Ash stared at May wondering why she was feeling so happy about this...until something suddenly clicked in his head. He remembered his mum telling him about mistletoe on one particular Christmas when he was little; Delia had told him that when two people were caught under the mistletoe, they usually kissed. As soon as Ash recalled that day in his head, he started to realise why May was acting thrilled when they were under the mistletoe: she wanted to kiss him.

Max was heading towards the window to look outside until he stopped and noticed that Ash and May weren't following him, so he turned back around to get them over. "Hey, come on, you two. I was going to see how it looked outside and I'd like you both to see..." Max suddenly stopped himself when he saw Ash and May, and he noticed that May had a big smile on her face while Ash was staring in stunned silence. "Hey, what's up with you two?" Max asked. He then looked up to see the mistletoe hanging on the doorway and he quickly started to back away. "Um...I think I'll see how Mum and Dad are going with the dinner and leave you both alone." Max said before he turned and rushed out of the room towards the kitchen.

Back with Ash and May, the two were still standing staring each other in the eyes, bright blue meeting with chocolate brown. "Well, Ash. I guess you're lucky that you're being caught under the mistletoe with me, aren't you?" May teasingly asked with a big smile on her face and her hands behind her back. She then slowly started to step over towards him while Ash started to step backwards, as he had no idea of what to do in this situation. Usually he felt very confident and had an idea of what he would do in any kind of situation, but this was very different from what he was used to.

"Um, May? I'm not going to lie about this; I'm actually feeling a bit nervous." Ash commented. Pikachu was watching this all the while with a big smile, and then he jumped off Ash's shoulder figuring that the two would need to be alone for this. May happily giggled to herself seeing and listening to Ash's response to what was happening; he looked so cute when he was nervous.

"Oh, there's no need to be. I can safely tell you that there's nothing to be nervous about. So you can just relax. In fact, you should start considering yourself lucky." May commented. She was enjoying teasing Ash like this; it was worth it to see what his reaction would be. Sure enough, Ash started to look down at the floor as a blush streaked across his face and he could feel his heart rate start to increase. He wasn't sure why he was acting like this now as it never seemed to happen before, but it was something that he surprisingly wasn't bothered by. In fact, he even dared to say, as much as he didn't want to out loud, that he liked this new feeling. It was something he had never experienced before, but at the same time he liked it because it was something new for him.

"You think so?" Ash asked as he started to show a smile at May's reassurance. May happily nodded in agreement as she stepped closer towards Ash until she was nearly in direct close contact with him.

"Definitely. I've been looking forward to doing this for a while now." May replied. And with that statement, without any hesitance on May's part, she then leaned forward and pressed her lips against Ash's causing him to nearly turn frozen stiff and his eyes to nearly bulge out of his head as he realised what was happening.

'_I don't believe this. May's kissing me! But...why don't I want to pull away? Why am I enjoying this new feeling?' _Ash mentally asked himself as he stared in disbelief trying to register what was happening. He then looked at May to see that she had a big smile on her face as she was kissing him; it seemed that she was really enjoying this. After about a few seconds, Ash slowly closed his eyes as he decided not to try and think too hard about it and found himself lost in the moment as he started to return the kiss. The two were soon in tune with their kiss; it was as if their two hearts were combining into one. Pikachu was watching this all the while and he had a big smile on his face. "(Nicely done, May. Nicely done.)" Pikachu commented as he looked on at the two Trainers with his arms crossed; he had been waiting on this for a while, and he was happy to see that May had decided to take action herself.

After a few more seconds, Ash and May slowly broke away from their kiss and simply looked on at each other with bright smiles on their faces. "I don't believe I'm saying this, May. But that was one of the most amazing things I've ever done. I had no idea that you were such a good kisser." Ash commented. May couldn't help herself giggling a bit hearing Ash's response. While she had to admit that she did catch him a bit off-guard by suddenly doing that, she was glad to see that he hadn't objected to anything that was happening yet.

"Well, I've seen Mum and Dad do it several times. So it just seemed to be a natural thing for me." May explained. Ash's smile grew larger at this response as he and May simply pressed their foreheads together and looked each other in the eyes holding hands. They then turned their glances to notice that Max, Brock, Norman and Caroline were watching from the doorway in the kitchen and then they nearly jumped back in alarm. "How long have you all been standing there!?" May asked with an expression of surprise.

"Well, long enough to see that, I'll say this much." Max replied. May then turned her glance to Norman and Caroline and an expression of worry showed on her face as she started to wonder what her parents would say after seeing her kiss Ash. But after a few seconds, her worries were suddenly put to ease as the two brightly smiled.

"Oh, this is wonderful! May has her first boyfriend!" Caroline cheerfully exclaimed as she and Norman came out of the kitchen to see the new couple. Ash and May both stared in stunned silence before they started to smile; they were glad to see that Norman and Caroline were happy for them. "May, I'm so proud of you! I think you and Ash will make such a sweet couple!" Caroline smiled as she happily hugged May. May showed a bright smile hearing Caroline say that and hugged her back.

"Thanks, Mum! I got a bit scared when I saw that you and Dad were watching us, but I'm so glad you're happy for us." May commented. Ash showed a bright smile as he watched this scene on, and then he looked up to notice that Norman was coming over to talk to him.

"I'm so glad that you and May are together. I had a feeling that you would become May's boyfriend, just because of how close you two were and how you've always helped May during your travels. You'll make sure that you take good care of May, right?" Norman asked. Ash looked up at the Gym Leader and nodded in agreement; he would remember to do that no matter what.

"And in case you need any advice, you let me know!" Brock called waving from the kitchen. Ash turned his head to see his friend and nodded in agreement. "I'll keep that in mind. Thanks, Brock!" Ash replied waving back to Brock. He then turned to May who had just let go from her hug with Caroline and walked over to her, and then the two both held hands looking back at everyone.

"I hate to break up the celebration, but could you excuse me and Ash for a few minutes?" May asked, looking over at Ash with a bright smile on her face. Ash turned to May wondering what she was talking about before he suddenly figured it out and started to show a big smile as well. The others seemed to figure out what May was trying to tell them because Caroline turned to everyone.

"Come on, everyone. We better keep checking up on dinner to see if it's ready yet. Max, you can help too." Caroline explained. She then grabbed Max by the hand and headed back into the kitchen with Brock and Norman. "Hey, no fair! I won't get to see them!" Max complained as he disappeared into the kitchen along with Caroline. Once they were sure that it was only them in the room, Ash and May looked at each other.

"Finally! I didn't think they were ever going to leave." May commented. Now that it was just them, Ash and May both stared into each other's eyes with bright smiles. "You know, Ash, I hope I didn't take you by surprise with me suddenly kissing you like that." May said.

Ash simply shook his head. "Not at all. In fact, it was actually a pleasant surprise you gave me, even if I didn't see it coming. After all, you did say that you wanted to do that for a while, right?" Ash asked in response. May nodded in agreement; Ash was right about that. "You know, May? I used to wonder if people change when they kiss, but I was told that I needed to find that out for myself." Ash explained.

"And what do you think now that you've had your first kiss?" May asked. Ash then showed a bright smile before he replied "It's one of the best changes I've ever experienced." May's smile grew wider at this reply, and that was something she enjoyed as well.

"So since that's answered, you want to try that kiss again?" May asked showing a teasing smile like she did the first time. Ash simply showed a bright smile before nodding in agreement.

"Why not? I'd like to go for another round." he replied. With that answer, the two pressed their lips together simply enjoying the feeling of having this much close contact with each other and enjoying the feeling of having their friendship become something deeper. May wrapped her arms around Ash while Ash placed one hand on May's waist and the other around the back of her head deepening their kiss. After a few seconds, the two broke apart again and looked each other in the eyes.

"This is probably the best Christmas present I've ever gotten." May said. "My thoughts exactly." Ash agreed.


End file.
